April 15
Josh 11:1-12:24 | PS 84:1-12 | Prov 13:5-6 | Luke 17:11-37
Recently at our DHG (Discipleship Home Group) one of the members of our group asked for prayer a few weeks in a row, that the hearts of her employers would soften to enable her job to continue which would involve her being able to work in person in spite of her not being vaccinated. She brought back news to the group that her prayers were answered. But she brought it to the group to thank us and encourage us for interceding on her behalf. More importantly, she mentioned on more than one occasion that all praise should be directed to God. How often that is missed. So many are like little kids. We ask in prayer for many things: health, relationships, job opportunities, etc. When they happen many forget to thank God, or worse than that take the credit for these prayers when they are answered. Many are familiar with the acronym, ACTS, for prayer, which represent: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. The most important one being adoration. Sadly, for most the majority of prayer is spent on supplication. There is nothing wrong with supplication, or asking God for those things we desire in our life. But there is something wrong when these prayers are answered, if we do not then turn around in adoration and give all of the thanks and praise to our God who alone is able and worthy to answer our prayers.
We read of an interaction and a request in Luke 17:12-13, "Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”" Simply speaking it forth, Jesus healed all ten. But we read further in 17:15-16, "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan." We see the conclusion of this interaction in 17:17-19, "So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”" Jesus did not take away the physical healing of the nine, but that is all that they received. The one, the Samaritan leper, was healed both physically and spiritually.
There is nothing wrong, in fact, it is right to ask our heavenly Father for things. But we must never lose sight of what is most important in what we seek. Jesus said in Luke 17:33, "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." God has and will continue to give us earthly things that enhance our lives, from families, to homes, to jobs, to vacations, etc. But these things will not and cannot last for eternity. God offers both the temporal and the eternal. It is the eternal which lasts. It is the eternal which cannot be lost. Jesus reminds us of the need for us to remain in anticipation of Him, rather than focusing on earthly things in 17:26-27, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." So, as we all pray, and hopefully everyone reading this does indeed pray, remember Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: